The GTA city proclaimed May 7 to 13 “Innovation Week” in Markham, a place that’s home to more than 1,500 high-tech and life sciences companies.

According to the City, more than 60% of Markham’s population has a post-secondary education, and it has the lowest industrial and commercial tax rates in region.

City of Markham

As Toronto continues its bid for Amazon’s new HQ2, Amazon officials were in the region in March as they visited the 20 shortlisted cities.

According to Toronto Global, the city held two days of meetings with the officials, who were “very interested in hearing more about our tech sector and the benefits that come from our publicly funded health care and education systems.”

Toronto was one of 238 cities bidding for Amazon’s new HQ2. In Canada, bids were received from Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Sault Ste. Marie, Windsor, Hamilton, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax, Toronto, and even Langford – a suburb of Victoria.

Chicago, LA, Dallas, New York City, and Boston, among others, are all up against Toronto.

Amazon HQ2 will be Amazon’s second headquarters in North America, and the company expects to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs.

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Yasmin Aboelsaud

Yasmin is the Toronto City Editor at Daily Hive. She enjoys coffee, brunch, and travel. When she's not at the office, she's generally travelling, brunching, and drinking coffee. Her office plant needs a name, so feel free to send suggestions.